Man Booker longlist: which book would make the best video game?

The famed literary prize has announced its list of 2014 contenders – but will any of these challenging works be on PlayStation 4 next year?

Author Hilary Mantel poses for pictures after winning the 2012 Man Booker prize. Behind the smile however, is the no doubt baleful realisation that no video game tie-in deal is imminent. Photograph: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

After the white-hot excitement of Wednesday's Man Booker longlist announcement, literary chatter has now inevitably turned to the most pressing question: which, if any, of these works is suitable for video game conversion?

Discussed only in hushed tones, but no less noticeable, it has become a marked disappointment of these major awards that not one winner in 45 years has found itself immortalised in interactive entertainment form. In 1981, the year that iconic arcade hit Pac-Man was released, Salman Rushdie's magical realist opus Midnight's Children failed to re-emerge as a pill-chomping maze game, despite doubtless interest in the concept.

And in 1993, when the world turned its attention to seminal first-person shooter Doom, Booker winner Roddy Doyle must have stood by in quiet ignomy as his warm and gently comic novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha failed to rematerialise as Dublin-based blaster, Paddy Clarke Die Die Die. Even Hilary Mantel's historic double win has not captured the attention of game creators. Somehow, there is no Tudor-based Wolf Hall stealth adventure, complete with Sir Thomas More boss fight and protestant reformation DLC. What do these people have to do?

So, now that the thrilling mushroom cloud of revelation has faded, let's enter the nuclear winter of serious thought. Do any of these Man Booker highlights stand a chance as video games?

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour – Joshua Ferris

Described by the Guardian as "dismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be," Ferris' state-of-modern-life novel follows curmudgeonly dentist Paul O'Rourke as he discovers that someone has set up Twitter and Facebook accounts in his name, and is having more fun in his life than him.

Video game potential: OK, O'Rourke needs to be subtly recast as an elite special forces operative, and the Facebook entries would need to be coded references to a crazed eastern European terror plot, but with these miniscule changes, Ferris may be on to something. 7/10

Us – David Nicholls

A troubled family embarks on a grand tour of European cities, which may save the tattered inter-relationships or tear the characters apart at last.

Video game potential: Limited. Perhaps an experiential drama in the style of indie hit Gone Home, or a retro-themed text adventure. "You are exploring St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Do you, a) admire the statue of St Peter Enthroned, attributed to 13th-century sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio, or b) attempt to repair the dysfunctional relationship with your neglected son over a wretchedly expensive ham and cheese panini?" 6/10

Orfeo – Richard Powers

An aging composer sets up a science lab to look for musical components in DNA strands. But when Homeland Security discovers his potential bio-weapon and forces him to flee, he plans one last "calamitous artwork" in retribution.

Video game potential: Hasn't Call of Duty already done this one? 6/10

The Wake – Paul Kingsnorth

Set in the years following the Norman invasion of 1066, Kingsworth's gripping post-apocalyptic novel follows a small band of guerrillas as they take on the might of the French army.

Video game potential: This is more like it – bloody combat, pagan gods, a protagonist crippled with self-doubt. Think Max Payne meets Ridley Walker in the Lincolnshire Fens. And the novel was crowd-funded, so there's a built in monetised community. 9/10

The Blazing World – Siri Hustvedt

A female painter must combat the innate misogyny of the New York art establishment by creating for herself three male pseudonyms.

Video game potential: Here is a real opportunity to explore and indeed expose the phallocentric excesses of the sexist games industry. However, could she be an archeologist? A sexy archeologist? With two guns? There, perfect. 10/10

Which previous Man Booker novels do you think would work as video games?